“Oh, you didn’t tell her?” I say to Kate, who shakes her head. “Gah. I’ve been having thoughts like maybe selling immediately is a little hasty. And those thoughts have only gotten stronger.”
“Oh no,” Kate says.
“Ohyay,” Ginny says, clapping her hands.
“Ginny, it’s messy asfuck,” I say, biting the edge of my thumb.
“I agree,” says Kate.
“Do you think he likes you?” Ginny asks, biting her lip in fizzy anticipation.
“Maybe,” I say. I think about the way he looked at me at dinner. The almost kiss on the stairs. There have been moments. I’m sure of it.“This is a mess, isn’t it? It snuck up on me. He’s like objectively hot, but I thought he was a hotasshole, so that made it easier. But now I realize he’s a hot nice guy. Thoughtful.”
Ginny and Kate are both quiet for a moment, pulling frighteningly similar concerned faces, just as Leo starts to walk down the carriage, holding on to the backs of other chairs to steady himself.
“I have to go,” I whisper suddenly.
“Oh, is the hot chef coming?” says Ginny loudly.
“Shh, Ginny,” I whisper quickly, before looking up at an amused Leo with a single eyebrow raised. “Hi, Leo.”
“Hey, Olive. You want anything from the restaurant car? I’m getting more astringent espresso and perhaps another one of those dry pastries.”
I hear the girls both giggle. “That’s Ginny and Kate,” I explain.
“Hi, Ginny and Kate,” says Leo, and I turn the screen around so they can wave at each other.
“I’m going to guess Olive called the espressoastringent,” says Ginny.
“She did, but it was me who thought the pastry was a bit dry.” And then Leo smiles his cutest smile into the screen at my best friends and I feel my knees start to buckle under me.
I turn the phone back round to face me.
“Good-bye, Leo,” I say, waving him on.
“I think you mean Hot Chef,” he replies, his eyes narrowing in wicked delight.
“Fuck!I’m hanging up now,” I say to the girls, who are both bug-eyed at this exchange. I get back to the seat to a flurry of messages from them.
GINNY:OMG you’re fucked
KATE:I agree
GINNY:He’s adorable
KATE:I agree
ME:He’s also not as awful as he was
KATE:Sort your feelings about the restaurant before anything else. You need to distance yourself from Leo romantically until you know. It’s not fair on him, or you.
ME:I’m not sure it’s romance. I think it’s horniness.
KATE:Still...
GINNY:No. Don’t refuse yourself happiness! Everything will figure itself out.
ME:I want to listen to Ginny.
